History and so on

Saturday morning, another sunny day. The flat is really light and airy, a significant contrast from the dark rooms we had in Vienna. We even have a TV, but it does not get ESPN or the Phillies games so there are hardships. We are beginning to think that all of this talk about the foul English weather is an exaggeration. Of course, we lived in Seattle long enough to know that four days in June is not long enough to make judgments about the climate.

I went to work yesterday in Jonathan Hodgkin's lab, and actually began some experiments. Well, OK, I took some strains out of the freezer to grow up over this weekend to begin some experiments on Monday, but at least I got started. I will have an Oxford faculty ID card-- don't laugh-- so all of the signs that say, "closed to visitors" will not apply to us. I don't know if I will be required to wear a gown or say things like, "right" and "jolly well". The humor behind Oxford University allowing me to pose as a faculty member is not lost on us. I feel like a live version of a Monty Python skit (although I think that they actually came from Cambridge).

The history here is a bit intimating. I work in the Hans Krebs building. (Begin obscure humor section here.) I felt like I should have cycled to work but I walked instead. The walk takes about 35 minutes, but I can pass the Roger Bannister athletic fields in less than four minutes. I also pass the house where Robert Boyle worked. It is not ideal, but I do feel the pressure on me from working in such a place. One of our walks took us by the house where Robert Hooke lived-- a tiny place, almost like a cell. (End obscure humor.)

We went to our local pub last night and will be headed to the Covered Market in a few minutes when the laundry finishes. (We have a washing machine in the flat so we don't have to haul laundry across town on the strassenbahn as we did inVienna. Which is good because they don't have strassenbahns here.)

In case you could not tell, Philip wrote this one.

Final Exams!

It is a colorful week to have arrived in Oxford-- final exam time! Oxford University students take their final exams in full academic dress called subfusc. We stopped these students late yesterday afternoon after their exams to take their picture. Men are required to wear a dark suit, black shoes and socks, a white shirt and a white bow-tie. Women wear a black skirt with tights, a white blouse, black shoes and a black ribbon around their neck. Note that these students have pink carnations in their lapels-- which is significant. Students who have just started their exams wear white ones, those in the middle of exams wear pink ones, and those who have finished their exams wear red carnations. We have noticed those who are wearing red ones are heading straight to the pubs!
We walked along the River Cherwell (behind our apartment) into town yesterday, stopping at Oxford University Press, Blackwell's Books, and the many buildings which comprise Oxford University-- arriving back at our apartment happily exhausted once again...
Outside the gate to our Eyot Place apartment

Arrived

We arrived safely yesterday right on schedule-- we couldn't have asked for a smoother flight or bus trip up to Oxford. It was a glorious early summer day -- 65 degrees and sunny, so we spent most of the rest of our day walking around Oxford to get our bearings. Our little flat is quite nice and peaceful-- right next to a meadow along the River Cherwell, a tributary of the Thames. It has a highspeed wireless internet connection, no less than 2 coffee presses, and a power shower, so we have all we need.

Right down the street is the Magdalen Bridge, where you can rent a punt.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalen_Bridge
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punt_(boat)
Deb's attempt at an artistic shot of the punts from Magdalen Bridge

No matter how I try, I don't think I will be able to get Philip to go punting with me. I guess I'll have to wait until Ray and Linda come in July-- they're always up for adventure! We spent some time down on Queen Street shopping for a couple of cheap pay-as-you-go mobile phones and enjoyed the requisite English fish & chips (in butcher paper wrapping) for supper. We made it all the way to 8:00pm before tumbling into bed for the next 12 hours...
--Deb

Cleverness

In my last conversation with my mother a few years ago, she commented about something that she thought Deb had written in our Christmas letter. I told her that I wrote our Christmas letter every year. There was a long pause before she said, "You write them? I just assumed...." Another long pause, and she was clearly puzzled. "I thought Deb.... You write them? But Philip, they are so clever." So I have to give credit where it is due. The "Oxford Comma" title is in fact Deb's cleverness.

We are just about packed and will be ready to head to the airport in a few hours The last week or so has been a lot of farewell lunches, parties, and hugs. Many people are glad to see us leave town-- we had no idea. We are pretty sure that we will have forgotten something, but England is generally civilized and we speak the language (more or less), so we can probably go to a store for things we discover that we have left behind. Our flight goes to Heathrow, and the Oxford Bus Company runs every half hour so that means minimal baggage handling. We have a one bedroom furnished flat in downtown Oxford with an internet connection, so we will let you know what it is like once we arrive. After we get there, our first significant errand will be to get set up with a mobile phone service. (Notice that I am trying to learn the language-- a "flat" rather then an "apartment", a "mobile phone" rather than a "cell phone". Those language lessons are paying off already.)--Philip

It seems that many wanted to join the conversation about "The Oxford Comma" by leaving a comment, but could not do so because they didn't have an account with Google. So we loosened the permissions on the blog, and now anyone can leave a comment by clicking on the "comments" link and simply typing in your comment -- checking the "Anonymous" box at the bottom. We'll see if it works out okay... if we receive too much spam (which is up to our discretion :)) we may have to restrict commenting. We'll trust you all to behave yourselves and sign your names!

Oh, and we changed the "post time" to Greenwich Mean Time--- the official local time of Oxford. --Deb

In the Beginning....

Welcome to our travel blog! We thought it was most appropriate to begin this blog with the project that started us on this English adventure in the first place -- Phil’s genetics textbook being published with Oxford University Press. Here is the cover— finalized just last week, which also was the genesis of the title of our account here—The Oxford Comma.

Notice in the title of book there is a comma after “Genomes” so that it reads “Genes, Genomes, and Networks”. As the grammar fanatics among you know, the comma that comes before “and” in a series like that is optional. What you may not know is that the comma is referred to as “an Oxford comma” because it was introduced into print by Oxford University Press more than a century ago. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma )

So the Oxford Comma refers to the title of the textbook that brought us to England for this sabbatical in the first place. But the Oxford Comma is also how we think about this sabbatical itself—a pause slowing down the series of activities in our lives. While in Oxford, Phil will be working in a C. elegans worm lab with his long-time colleague Jonathan Hodgkin and with the editors at OUP to put the finishing touches on the textbook and associated website. Deb’s plans are no less ambitious—to check out the English coffee and tea shops, museums, gardens, quilts, and yes, probably even a few libraries.

You may have wondered why we have a 30 year old photo of us at the beginning of our blog. We’re hoping to come back at the end of the summer so rejuvenated that we will once again look like this. Well, we can dream anyway….